Wide Sargasso Sea : Jean Rhys : 9780241951552 Wide Sargasso Sea US$6.44 US$18.62 You save US$12.18 Free delivery worldwide Add to basket Add to wishlist Description Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner the Royal Society of Literature Award is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now...Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?' If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness.

Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys's powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. 'Compelling, painful and exquisite' Guardian 'Brilliant. A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent' The Times 'Rhys turns a menacing cipher into a grieving, plausible young woman, and one whose story says whole worlds about global mixtures, about the misunderstandings between the colonized, the colonizers and the people who can't easily say which they are' Time Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother, and came to England when she was sixteen. Her first book, a collection of stories called The Left Bank, was published in 1927. This was followed by Quartet (originally Postures, 1928), After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934) and Good Morning, Midnight (1939).

None of these books was particularly successful and with the outbreak of war they went out of print. Jean Rhys dropped from sight until nearly twenty years later she was discovered living reclusively in Cornwall. During those years she had accumulated the stories collected in Tigers are Better-Looking. In 1966 she made a sensational reappearance with Wide Sargasso Sea, which won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award. Her final collection of stories, Sleep It Off Lady, appeared in 1976 and Smile Please, her unfinished autobiography, was published posthumously in 1979. Jean Rhys died in 1979. show more Product details 110 x 170 x 12mm | 40.82g Publication date Historical Fiction Review quote Compelling, painful and exquisite Guardian Brilliant.

A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent The Times Rhys turns a menacing cipher into a grieving, plausible young woman, and one whose story says whole worlds about global mixtures, about the misunderstandings between the colonized, the colonizers and the people who can't easily say which they are Time show more About Jean Rhys Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1894. After arriving in England aged sixteen, she became a chorus girl and drifted between different jobs before moving to Paris, where she started to write in the late 1920s. She published a story collection and four novels, after which she disappeared from view and lived reclusively for many years. In 1966 she made a sensational comeback with her masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea, written in difficult circumstances over a long period. Rhys died in 1979. show more Review Text London School of Journalism | Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea.

Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre Jean Rhys and Charlotte Bronte The use of symbolism in the presentation of characters by Jenia Geraghty I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys composed their novels in different centuries and came from very different backgrounds. However despite these disparities the use of symbolism in their narratives can be compared. Jean Rhys's 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea is a creative response to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, a nineteenth century classic, which has always been one of English Literature's greatest and most popular love stories. She seemed such a poor ghost, I thought I'd like to write her a life. [Jean Rhys] Jane Eyre is a story of true love that encounters many obstacles and problems, but surmounts these troubles to fulfil destiny. The main source of trouble is Rochester's insane first wife, Bertha Mason, a lunatic Creole who is locked in the attic of his country house, Thornfield Hall.

The problem is eventually solved, tragically, when Bertha escapes and burns Thornfield to the ground, killing herself and seriously maiming Rochester in the process. The social and moral imbalances between Jane and Rochester are then equalled by his punishment for his previous actions, and Jane's rise in status due to an inheritance. This ending, however, did not satisfy the Dominican-born Jean Rhys. She disagreed with Bronte's presentation of Bertha Mason and set out to write 'a colonial story that is absent from Bronte's text'. Rhys's story tells the story of Bertha, and relates Bertha and Rochester's meeting, and their doomed marriage. In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys shifts the perspective on Jane Eyre by expressing the viewpoints of the different characters in the source material, so taking a different structural approach to the first-person narrative technique employed by Bronte. She wrote her version as a multiple narrative, giving Bertha a previously-unheard voice. Rochester, even though un-named in Wide Sargasso Sea, takes over the narration in part two, and Grace Poole enlightens us at the opening of part three.

Rhys can be seen as repaying Bronte for her failure to give Bertha a voice by not allowing Jane one, even though she does appear in the novel. Antoinette, as Bertha is named in Rhys's novel, declares, 'There is always the other side', and this proves to be the governing theme throughout both novels. I knew you would do me some good in some way . . . I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you [Edward Rochester, Jane Eyre] Rochester's prescience is an example of a prominent theme in Jane Eyre, in which premonition and the supernatural appear throughout the story. Both Jane and Edward believe in the signs they read in eyes, in nature and in dreams. Jane's own surname, 'Eyre', comes from the name of a historic house in which a madwoman lived, but Bronte also intended it to mean being a free spirit. Jane indeed has a frightening experience and actually sees herself as a spirit in the Red Room mirror at Gateshead, where she subsequently has a fit.

Jane encounters the legend of Gytrash in her fit, 'A great black dog behind him', a tale about a spirit that appears in the shape of either a horse, dog or mule that haunted solitary ways and followed isolated travellers. Jane describes Rochester's dog as Gytrash before she knows to whom he belongs, suggesting that she had a premonition from the vision she saw in her fit that this encounter was to spark off the most incredible aspect of her life. Jane's dreams form a firm base for the prediction of what is to happen in her life. The symbolism of her dreams forecast her future. When she dreams of a garden that is 'Eden-like' and laden with 'Honey-dew' Rochester proposes to her. That night, however, the old horse chestnut tree is struck by lightning and splits in half, foretelling the difficulties that lie ahead for the couple. The theme of dreams and foresight is also used by Jean Rhys: Is it true that England is like a dream? One of my friends wrote and said London is like a cold dark dream.

Antoinette's dreams appear to be just as significant as Jane's, and Rhys no doubt found inspiration for developing Antoinette's character through the idea of Jane's dreams and premonitions. In Bronte's time writers would often employ the technique of 'word-painting' at pivotal moments in the text and use landscape imagery to integrate plot, character and theme. In the scene where Jane describes herself as 'tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea', for example, Bronte warns the reader that Jane's romantic interlude is not an entirely positive turn of events. The emphasis on 'unquiet sea' informs the reader that Jane may well be in danger. This technique adds to the gothic element of the story, and heightens our response to the characters' perceptions of their predicaments. Similarly, in Wide Sargasso Sea, Rochester and Antoinette's marriage can be seen as being doomed from the start due to the landscape that they pass through on their journey to the honeymoon house.

They stop in a village named 'Massacre' where it is raining and rather grey, and Rochester takes an instant dislike to the place because of the name and the inhabitants, both of which he describes as 'sly, spiteful, malignant perhaps'; words which appear to convey his whole attitude to all those who surround him. Later Rochester describes the night the couple spent in Massacre, emphasising that he lay awake all night listening to cocks crowing; a symbol of deception. In the Bible Jesus says to Judas, 'before the cock crows, you shall deny me thrice', and this line, interestingly, appears in the novel further on when Rochester confronts Antoinette about her history. Just as the name Jane Eyre can be seen to reflect Jane's character, the title of Rhys's novel can be seen to reflect the development of its plot. The Sargasso Sea, ('Sargasso' being the weed that gives that part of the North Atlantic its name), is almost still but at its centre has a mass of swirling currents, an image suggestive of Antoinette's character, and of the turmoil of her imprisonment and the method of her escape.

There is a limit to the extent to which we can see Wide Sargasso Sea as an interpretation of Jane Eyre, and we must remember that in some respects Rhys's novel takes pains to distance itself from Jane Eyre. The distinction is seen particularly in the inclusion of post-colonial theory in Wide Sargasso Sea. Antoinette is aware from a young age of the element of imprisonment that hangs over the West Indies; The paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. The dead flowers represent the institution of slavery, while the fresh living smell represents what has come and will come in a post-emancipation society. In 'Women and Change in the Caribbean', Momsen wrote that when slavery was abolished in the nineteenth century, 'Women were taught that marriage was both prestigious and morally superior'. She also points out that accepting and following the lifestyles of the whites facilitated social mobility, and when Rhys's protagonist Antoinette marries she is seen as forsaking the customs and values of the Negroes.

Antoinette, as a French Creole, has both black and white blood in her, which causes her much confusion; I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all. She is aware of her family's history and that she has a black and a white side to her. Her actions and thoughts appear to indicate that she is trying to form her identity in a time of change, turbulence and conflict. The theme of black and white also links to the colour imagery presented by both writers, not only in the context of skin colour, but also in terms the colours that surround them in their environments. Antoinette's one time friend Tia, calls Antoinette a 'White Nigger' meaning that the emancipation has left the white slave owners in the same position as the blacks. Neither has power or money and both are resented by the new white people moving into the Caribbean. The 'white nigger' is neither a white person nor a black person, but is regarded as inferior to the Negroes. A range of imagery in the form of colours is associated with the development of the intrigue behind Antoinette's madness, and Jane's love for Rochester.

Rochester describes Bertha as having 'red balls' for eyes and a 'mask' instead of a face. This use of figurative language makes Bertha appear a grotesque monster, while in contrast Jane is likened to 'an eager little bird'. We can also compare the difference between how the symbolism of fire distinguishes the representations of Jane and Antoinette's characters. Rochester describes the West Indies as 'Fiery' and we see his dislike of this unfamiliar environment grow to overpowering proportions, until he decides to shoot himself. He is prevented by 'a fresh wind from Europe', which entices him home. This scene echoes Jane Eyre, where Jane hears Rochester's voice calling her back to Thornfield. Rochester undoubtedly associates Jamaica with evil and so Bertha's fiery, manic disposition fits in with his view of the Caribbean. England is seen as 'pure', Jane is described as having 'clear eyes' a 'face', this healthy description informing us of her mental health. Rochester wants a true English Rose 'this is what I wished to have' (laying a hand on Jane's shoulder). Bertha's fiery, hateful and wild nature is the opposite of Jane's prim and typically English reserve.

The passionate nature at the heart of the novel is epitomised in Jane's metaphor for her love for Rochester, 'Fiery iron grasped my vitals'. Jane's fire is in her love whereas Antoinette's fire is one of pain and fear. Fire also links Jane to Bertha, both in passion and in the actual setting of fire, most notably the fire that kills Bertha but symbolises rebirth in the character of Rochester. In Wide Sargasso Sea fiery emotions surround the character of Antoinette and her progression into her 'zombie-like' state. The 'zombie' theme sums up Rhys's main point about insanity and spiritual death that she introduces in the form of the Caribbean magic, Obeah. Rochester discovers this black magic and is even accused by Antoinette of performing it on her; 'You are trying to make me into someone else, that's Obeah too'. It is Rochester's calling her 'Bertha' after he discovers her history, and that her mother's name was close to her own, that sparks this outburst by Antoinette.

The fuel keeping Antoinette alive before she suffers her final death is hate, 'before I die I will show you how much I hate you'. This hate stems from the way she was presented in Jane Eyre, and Grace Poole informs us, 'I don't turn my back on her when her eyes have that look'. Ultimately, Antoinette's only possible solution, because of her zombie-like state, is to follow her dead spirit into death, 'now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do'. The death of Antoinette/Bertha heralds the end of Rhys's story, but is the turning point for Jane and Rochester in Jane Eyre. From the destruction of Thornfield and Rochester's disfigurement through his selfless actions in rescuing others from the fire, he is able to redeem himself and find contentment. After he has suffered and felt pain, mentally and physically, and lost his arrogance and pride, he finally realises his true self: I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker.

With Rochester's rebirth Jane's quest for love is finally over, as she finally has her equal. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman, a novel of personal development, loosely based on Bronte's own experiences, and drawing upon her extensive knowledge of folklore, her vivid imagination and her influences, including the Romantics (Rochester has been described as a 'Byronic hero') and Shakespeare. The novel is a masterpiece that arose from Bronte's intention to create a love story interwoven with her own experiences, even though her own life did not have such a fairy-tale-like ending. Wide Sargasso Sea derives from Jane Eyre, and the relationship between the two has provoked much critical discussion about the two authors' intentions. The novels must be read together in order to fully appreciate how they complement each other, and how each is also a novel in its own right, with distinct characters and plot. But, as I hope to have shown in this essay, one feature the novels have in common is that both authors make use of the literary device of symbolism in their writing.

In both novels our appreciation of the characters and themes is enriched by the symbolism inherent in such narrative elements as dreams, visions, landscapes, characters' names, place names, colours, fire, and even the titles. Bibliography Momsen, Janet. ed. Women and Change in the Caribbean. Kingston: Ian Randle; Bloomington: Indiana University Press; London: J. Currey, 1993. © Jenia Geraghty, May 2002 "I have really enjoyed the course and my tutor has provided really useful feedback through all the lessons." Katie S "...such a wonderful course with helpful administration staff and a super tutor." Shirley P "The course was super - most enjoyable and the tutoring was excellent!" Brian C Wide Sargasso Sea : Jean Rhys : 9780393960129 Wide Sargasso Sea By (author) Jean Rhys , Edited by Judith L. Raiskin Share Add to basket Add to wishlist Description Textual notes illuminate the novel's historical background, regional references, and the non-translated Creole and French phrases necessary to fully understand this powerful story.

Backgrounds includes a wealth of material on the novel's long evolution, it connections to Jane Eyre, and Rhys's biographical impressions of growing up in Dominica. Criticism introduces readers to the critical debates inspired by the novel with a Derek Walcott poem and eleven essays. show more Product details 130 x 212 x 16mm | 358.34g Publication date Illustrations, 1 map, 1 port. ISBN10 Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys - AbeBooks Wide Sargasso Sea by Rhys You Searched For: Results (1 - 30) of 41 1 ISBN 10: 0393310485 ISBN 13: 9780393310481 Used Softcover ISBN 10: 0241951550 ISBN 13: 9780241951552 New Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Paperback. Book Condition: New.

Not Signed; Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner the Royal Society of Literature Award is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now.Now they have taken everything away. Wha. book. Bookseller Inventory # ria9780241951552_rkm ISBN 10: 0141182857 ISBN 13: 9780141182858 New Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Paperback. Book Condition: New. Not Signed; Her grand attempt to tell what she felt was the story of Jane Eyre's 'madwoman in the attic', Bertha Rochester, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea is edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith in Penguin Classics. Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole he. book.

Bookseller Inventory # ria9780141182858_rkm ISBN 10: 0141185422 ISBN 13: 9780141185422 New Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Paperback. Book Condition: New. Not Signed; Inspired by Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', WIDE SARGASSO SEA is set in 1830's Jamaica. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality.After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours b. book.

Bookseller Inventory # ria9780141185422_rkm Rhys, Jean (introduction by Francis Wyndham.) Published by New York: Norton, (1982) (1982) ISBN 10: 0393308804 ISBN 13: 9780393308808 Used Softcover Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: New York: Norton, (1982), 1982. Trade paperback. Aground-breaking novel, originally published in 1966, which was a revision of Jane Eyre, focusing on the West Indian madwoman locked in the attic. Introduction by Francis Wyndham. 190 pp. Good only (some underlining and marginal notations in pencil, toning to the pages).

Bookseller Inventory # 62843 ISBN 10: 0393310485 ISBN 13: 9780393310481 Used Paperback Published by Penguin Books (1968) Used Published by The Folio Society (1993) Used Hardcover Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: The Folio Society, 1993. Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good. 1993. 161 pages. No dust jacket, Folio edition with slipcase. Green cloth boards with green lettering and contains illustrations. Pages remain bright with light thumb prints included within. Binding is firm with light soiling to boards and tanning to the spine. book. Bookseller Inventory # 1462804006RF Published by Penguin, Harmondsworth, Middlesex (1968) Used Softcover First Edition Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Penguin, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1968. Softcover. Book Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Reprint. A clean copy age toning of page edges.

This is the first Penguin Edition. Size: 12mo standard small paperback. please refer to the attached photograph (s) Quantity Available: 1. Category: Literature & Literary; Inventory No: 0267418. Bookseller Inventory # 0267418 ISBN 10: 0140028781 ISBN 13: 9780140028782 Used Soft cover ISBN 10: 0141185422 ISBN 13: 9780141185422 Used Soft cover Published by Popular Library, New York (1966) Used Soft cover Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Popular Library, New York, 1966. Soft cover. Book Condition: Very Good. New York: Popular Library, 1966. Softcover. Book condition: VG+. Light crease to a corner of coverboard and some toning and soiling due to normal age. But a volume in excellent repair with no markings. Tight, sturdy, with price on front cover ($1.25).

Bookseller Inventory # 001684 Published by The Folio Society (1993) Used Hardcover Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: The Folio Society, 1993. Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good. 1993. 161 pages. No dust jacket. Green cloth boards with green lettering. Pages remain bright with very light thumb prints included within. Binding is firm with light markings to the boards and foxing to the spine. book. Bookseller Inventory # 1467390369cla ISBN 10: 0233958665 ISBN 13: 9780233958668 Used ISBN 10: 0241951550 ISBN 13: 9780241951552 New Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Penguin---ENG, 2011. Paperback. Book Condition: NEUF.

If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. - Nombre de page(s) : 136 - Poids : 80g - Langue : eng. Bookseller Inventory # N9780241951552 Published by World Books (1967) Used Hardcover Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: World Books, 1967. Hardcover. Book Condition: Near Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Very Good. Reprint. 188 pp, pictorial jacket by Eric Thomas, intro by Francis Wyndham. First published 1966 by Andre Deutsch. Pages tanned, jacket very slightly edge worn. The early life of Mr Rochester's first wife in Jane Eyre.

Bookseller Inventory # 010206 ISBN 10: 0141182857 ISBN 13: 9780141182858 New Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Penguin UK, 2001. Paperback. Book Condition: New. 12.9 x 19.8 cm. Editied with an Introduction and Notes by ANGELA SMITH'Rhys took one of the works of genius of the nineteenth century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the twentieth century'Michele Roberts The TimesJean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece, Wild Sargasso Sea, was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage disturbing rumours begin to circulate, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.

Paperback. Bookseller Inventory # MM-40023806 ISBN 10: 0241951550 ISBN 13: 9780241951552 New Paperback Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Penguin UK, 2011. Paperback. Book Condition: New. 2 SUB. 17.14 x 22.86 cm. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now . . . Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?' If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness.

Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys's powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. 'Brilliant. A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent' The Times. Paperback. Bookseller Inventory # MM-40023807 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: Andre Deutsch, 1960. Hardcover. Book Condition: Good. Re-bound Ex Library book in Good Condition with usual stamps and stickers. Light tan and some usage marking to the closed edge of pages. Clean covers, firm binding, clear content. Good reading copy. First edition. Good condition is defined as: a copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day.

Bookseller Inventory # mon0002501324 Destination, Rates & Speeds Item Description: World Books Arrgmt Andre Deutsch, 1967. Hardcover. Book Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 2nd Edition. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. Hardcover with dust jacket, this early edition published one year after the original English edition, the red cloth binding is clean and bright as new, the only flaw is moderate tanning to the page. Book Condition:Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good with some wear around edges. Second Edition.Former owners name neatly written on flyleafs. Original Eric Thomas dust jacket. Introduction by Francis Wyndham.A prequel to Jane Eyre, telling the story of the first wife of Mr Rochester.No printed price on DJ. DJ has not been price clipped. Slight foxing on DJ flaps. Red boards. Lightly tanned pages. Clean, tight pages. Strong binding.Book club edition. This novel was first published in 1966.

Bookseller Inventory # 000281 Wide Sargasso Sea Study Guide | GradeSaver Wide Sargasso Sea Study Guide Buy Study Guide Jean Rhys ' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is a short but dense literary work that becomes considerably more approachable when given some context. In the words of critic Anne B. Simpson, it is a text that offers "ambiguous and mutually incompatible interpretive possibilities." As such Rhys's work has been classified as a paragon of post-structuralism, a literary movement that insists upon the absence of absolute truth in the world. To be sure, Wide Sargasso Sea resists definition to an extent that many readers find frustrating. The narrative relies upon dream-like visions, fragmented impressions, incomplete sentences, and multiple first-person voices to create an unsettling overall sense of disorientation in the reader; this confusion in turn reflects the experiences of the work's main characters. Perhaps because its multitude of "interpretive possibilities," the novella has attracted a variety of critics, from feminists to deconstructionists to post-colonial theorists.

Undoubtedly the most important piece of contextual information about Wide Sargasso Sea is that the novella was inspired by Charlotte Brontë's famous nineteenth-century novel Jane Eyre (1847). In Jane Eyre, the eponymous heroine accepts a position as a governess at a remote country estate by the name of Thornfield Hall. She falls in love with her employer, the much-older Mr. Rochester, and eventually agrees to marry him. On the day of their nuptials, however, it comes out that Rochester is already married and is hiding his insane wife Bertha in the attic of his mansion. (This explains the evil laughter that Jane frequently hears emanating from the third story, as well as several strange incidents that befall the inhabitants of the house.) Jane, traumatized by the revelation of Rochester's shady past and horrified by his suggestion that she live as his mistress, flees from Thornfield, which the madwoman later burns to the ground. Bertha dies in the blaze and Rochester is temporarily blinded but regains his vision soon after his reunion with and marriage to Jane. The two, presumably, go on to live happily ever after.

Wide Sargasso Sea positions itself as a prequel to the events described in Brontë's tale and offers a much more nuanced and sympathetic portrait of the Creole madwoman Bertha, whom Rhys bestows with the more becoming moniker of "Antoinette." The title of the novella refers to the elongated portion of the Atlantic Ocean that separates England and the West Indies. The work traces Antoinette's life from her early childhood years in Jamaica to her disastrous marriage to an unnamed Englishman who imprisons her in the attic of his ancestral home. The text is full of ominous foreshadowing, mostly related to Antoinette's ultimate descent into madness and her final violent assertion of agency - setting fire to the house where she is captive. It should be noted that Rhys made two significant changes to the details of Jane Eyre as established by Brontë more than one hundred years earlier. First, she changed the time frame of the narrative, pushing Antoinette's childhood ahead by several decades.

In Brontë's novel, which takes place between 1798 and 1808, Bertha Mason is an already a grown woman, but in Rhys's work Antoinette Cosway is still an adolescent when the story begins in 1834, one year after Emancipation. This modification enabled Rhys to emphasize the racial tensions as well as the antagonism of the natives toward the colonizer: the revised time frame places Rhys's story as an end-of-empire text, while Brontë's novel takes place at the height of British imperialism. Additionally, Rhys revised the lineage of the madwoman as outlined in Jane Eyre, making it so that Antoinette/Bertha is not related by blood to Richard Mason ; instead, she is his stepsister. As critic Judith L. Raiskin points out, this enables Rhys to introduce "Antoinette's larger 'colored' family" to the tale and thus, again, to address racial issues in a more direct manner.

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys | Boeken.com Wide Sargasso Sea Specificaties Beschrijving Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner the Royal Society of Literature Award is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now... Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?' If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness. Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys's powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. 'Compelling, painful and exquisite' Guardian 'Brilliant.

A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent' The Times 'Rhys turns a menacing cipher into a grieving, plausible young woman, and one whose story says whole worlds about global mixtures, about the misunderstandings between the colonized, the colonizers and the people who can't easily say which they are' Time Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother, and came to England when she was sixteen. Her first book, a collection of stories called The Left Bank, was published in 1927. This was followed by Quartet (originally Postures, 1928), After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934) and Good Morning, Midnight (1939). None of these books was particularly successful and with the outbreak of war they went out of print. Jean Rhys dropped from sight until nearly twenty years later she was discovered living reclusively in Cornwall. During those years she had accumulated the stories collected in Tigers are Better-Looking.

In 1966 she made a sensational reappearance with Wide Sargasso Sea, which won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award. Her final collection of stories, Sleep It Off Lady, appeared in 1976 and Smile Please, her unfinished autobiography, was published posthumously in 1979. Jean Rhys died in 1979. Tweeten Beschrijving Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner the Royal Society of Literature Award is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now... Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?' If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul.

He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness. Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys's powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. 'Compelling, painful and exquisite' Guardian 'Brilliant. A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent' The Times 'Rhys turns a menacing cipher into a grieving, plausible young woman, and one whose story says whole worlds about global mixtures, about the misunderstandings between the colonized, the colonizers and the people who can't easily say which they are' Time Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother, and came to England when she was sixteen. Her first book, a collection of stories called The Left Bank, was published in 1927.

This was followed by Quartet (originally Postures, 1928), After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934) and Good Morning, Midnight (1939). None of these books was particularly successful and with the outbreak of war they went out of print. Jean Rhys dropped from sight until nearly twenty years later she was discovered living reclusively in Cornwall. During those years she had accumulated the stories collected in Tigers are Better-Looking. In 1966 she made a sensational reappearance with Wide Sargasso Sea, which won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award. Her final collection of stories, Sleep It Off Lady, appeared in 1976 and Smile Please, her unfinished autobiography, was published posthumously in 1979. Jean Rhys died in 1979.

Schrijf een recensie Wide Sargasso Sea book by Jean Rhys | 25 available editions | Alibris Books Historical fiction Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner the Royal Society of Literature Award is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now...Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?' If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty ... Read More Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner the Royal Society of Literature Award is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now...Now they have taken everything away.

What am I doing in this place and who am I?' If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness. Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys's powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. 'Compelling, painful and exquisite' Guardian 'Brilliant.

A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent' The Times 'Rhys turns a menacing cipher into a grieving, plausible young woman, and one whose story says whole worlds about global mixtures, about the misunderstandings between the colonized, the colonizers and the people who can't easily say which they are' Time Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother, and came to England when she was sixteen. Her first book, a collection of stories called The Left Bank, was published in 1927. This was followed by Quartet (originally Postures, 1928), After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934) and Good Morning, Midnight (1939). None of these books was particularly successful and with the outbreak of war they went out of print. Jean Rhys dropped from sight until nearly twenty years later she was discovered living reclusively in Cornwall. During those years she had accumulated the stories collected in Tigers are Better-Looking.

In 1966 she made a sensational reappearance with Wide Sargasso Sea, which won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award. Her final collection of stories, Sleep It Off Lady, appeared in 1976 and Smile Please, her unfinished autobiography, was published posthumously in 1979. Jean Rhys died in 1979. Read Less High Rated Sellers Only (Above 4 stars) Highest Rated Sellers Only (5 stars only) Shipping Attribute

Question: Who wrote the novel "The Wide Sargasso Sea" inspired by the novel Jane Eyre?
Answer: JEAN RHYS